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All police stations, chowkis in Delhi to have CCTVs

The Delhi Police have told the Delhi High Court today that all its police stations and chowkis will have Closed-Circuit Television cameras installed.

These CCTV cameras will be up by mid October and the move is a step towards ensuring more transparency in the agency’s functioning.

The Delhi Police and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government also told a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar that they will submit a joint report after identifying vulnerable spots in the city where cameras are urgently required.

The court was also informed that 3,100 posts of police personnel have been sanctioned for recruitment by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In a status report filed through criminal standing counsel Rajesh Mahajan, the police told the bench that the cameras will be installed by mid October 2018.

The Delhi HC was hearing a PIL initiated by it in 2012 after the infamous December 16, 2012 gangrape of a young woman in a moving bus.

The woman later succumbed to injuries inflicted on her by the rapists.

It was also hearing another PIL by social activist Ajay Gautam alleging that there have been several deaths inside police stations in the city in 2018 and the presence of functional CCTVs could act as a deterrent.

He has also claimed that even the CCTV cameras installed at a few police stations were obsolete, as they did not have the recording feature, and CCTVs were required at police stations to ensure transparency in their functioning.